Indian American Researcher controls brain cells using sound wavesIndo American News, Friday, 18th September 2015In a first, an Indian American researcher from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California has developed a new way to selectively activate brain, heart, muscle and other cells using ultrasonic sound waves. Dubbed as sonogenetics, the new technique has some similarities to the burgeoning use of light to activate cells in order to better understand the brain. “Light-based techniques are great for some uses. But this is a new, additional tool to manipulate neurons and other cells in the body,” informed Sreekanth Chalasani, assistant professor in Salk’s molecular neurobiology laboratory. The new method, which uses the same type of waves used in medical sonograms, may have advantages over the light-based approach, known as optogenetics, particularly when it comes to adapting the technology to human therapeutics. “This could be a big advantage when you want to stimulate a region deep in the brain without affecting other regions,” adds Stuart Ibsen, post-doctoral fellow in the Chalasani lab.

As Rural India Learns to go Digital, Farmers Sell Cattle Through Quikr and OLXNew Indian Express , Friday, 18th September 2015Rural India is going digital. Lakhs of such advertisements have begun appearing on sites across the country. OLX and Quikr dominate the domestic online classifieds scene and each account for thousands of ads — for cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep, poultry. Name it and there’s some bloke in the country who wants to sell it to you. So much has been the influx of ads that OLX, Quikr and some other classifieds sites have introduced separate categories for animals. The largest number of ads placed in this category, however, are for pets — dogs, cats, parrots. But a rural economy beginning to get access to and recognise the fruits of digitisation is adopting the heretofore exclusive urban domain and rapidly making it its own. A case in point is OLX. ‘Animals’ is a category that is one of only eleven that OLX offers.

Meet Ulli, an expat introducing Ayurveda to TurkeyLeyla Yvonne Ergil, Daily Sabah, Friday, 18th September 2015Ulli Allmendinger is an Istanbul expat who originally hails from Germany. However, her inspiring and beneficial work with Ayurveda that helps people achieve their optimum health transcends borders. Ayurveda is a 5,000-year-old tradition of natural healing that has its roots in India. Much more than a system of healing, it also considered to be a "science of life" as its name, "Ayur," meaning life, and "veda," meaning science or knowledge, infers. Ulli Allmendinger is one of those people who radiates from the inside out. Originally from Germany, although Ulli has lived abroad since her early 20s, she has been in Turkey now for the past five years, where she has been sharing her knowledge of Ayurveda in an effort to help create more awareness and expand the field of holistic medicine in the country. "Ayurveda is amazing in the way that, different from other medicinal systems such as Chinese medicine, it offers very practical, day-to-day advice. It is often called the 'science of life,' and as such, it is much more than just a system of medicine, it is a way of living: Living in harmony within your own self – mind, body and spirit – and your environment, nature specifically. At the heart of Ayurveda is this concept of constitution, your unique body type that you are born with, and if you are living and eating according to that, perfect health is the result." Ulli also gives lectures and seminars on a variety of subjects such as healing autoimmune diseases with Ayurveda, women's wellness and stress-reduction.New York Auction Sets Record for Indian PaintingJohn Elliot, Newsweek, Friday, 18th September 2015A new record price for an Indian painting was set on September 17 at a Christie’s auction in New York when India’s most prolific collector, Kiran Nadar, bid $3.5 million ($4.01 million including buyer’s premium) for Birth, a monumental 8 feet by 4 feet oil on board by F.N. Souza, one of the country’s most famous artists, who died in 2002. The previous record price of $2.59 million for a Souza work was set just last week at a Saffronart auction in Delhi, when his 5 feet by 4 feet Man and Woman Laughing went to the Delhi Art Gallery (DAG) for a hammer price of Rs14.6 crore – Rs16.84 crore ($2.59 million) including the premium. Souza’s earlier record was held by Birth, which was bought at a Christie’s London auction for £1.27 million ($2.5 million) in June 2008 at the height of a boom in Indian art by Tina Ambani, wife of Anil Ambani, one of the two Mumbai-based Reliance business brothers. She bought it for her Harmony Art Foundation, which has made a tidy profit on the sale, though the work was estimated in the Christie’s catalogue at surprisingly low figures of $2.2 million to $2.8 million. India’s old modern masters have been taking it in turns to hit record India prices at auctions. Souza’s sometimes tortured canvases and evocative line drawings of figures, often nude, and of townscapes are regularly on offer, but their prices have been beaten in recent years by other old members of the Progressives Group such as V.S. Gaitonde, who held the record till September 17 with a $3.79 million work sold at Christie’s in Mumbai in December 2013, Syed Haider Raza, and Tyeb Mehta, plus Amrita Sher-Gil.

Revealed: The best way to invest in India right nowDavid Thorpe , What Investment, Thursday, 17th September 2015Sunil Asnani, co-manager of the Matthews Asia India fund has revealed for What Investment the strategy he is deploying to invest in the Indian stock market right now. Indian equities rallied quite considerably last year on the election of Prime Minister Modi, who is seen as a pro-reform and pro-business prime minister. Since then, many observers have taken the view that the Indian reform agenda has stalled somewhat and that, combined with the general negativity that is engulfing all emerging market asset classes at the present time, has sent the valuations of the Indian stock exchange down from their previous-post-election euphoric highs. Asnani remarked that while valuations may now be more modest, they are ‘still above the five, seven and ten year averages.’ In terms of how he believes investors in the market can capture the potential of the Indian economy when valuations are elevated and emerging markets are pregnant with volatility, Asnani commented, ‘In the past we have got our fingers burnt trying to predict what the market is going to do, and lots of other people have had their fingers burnt trying to do. But we try to look past that now, and look at the companies.’ He added, that ‘India cannot be untouched by world events, in the short term it will be correlated, with low oil prices, a current account deficit and inflation, but that is all too complicated, it will affect returns in the short-term, and we think you can’t really invest in India if you just have a short-term perspective.’ Asnani is keen on the investment case for some of the private sector banks in India. There are public sector banks, in which the state have substantial shareholdings, but he believes that those banks are run in an economically inefficient way as then lending policies are often influenced by the government, and have high levels of non-performing loans as a consequence.’Indian state of Punjab allocates 500 MW solar under US¢9.2/kWhSmiti Mittal , Clean Technica, Thursday, 17th September 2015Another state-level solar power auction in India has yielded to the continued trend of record-low tariffs. The Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) recently allocated 500 MW worth of solar PV power plants to five separate developers. All the projects were allocated at less than Rs 6.00/kWh (US¢9.2/kWh), the lowest tariffs for any project allocated under the Punjab solar power policy so far. A total of 18 project developers had submitted bids to develop 1.65 GW against the offered capacity of 500 MW. These included some of the leading project developers from around the world and India. International bidders included Sun Edison, First Solar, and Sky Power, while Indian bidders included Emami Power, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Acme Solar, Welspun Energy, and Azure Power.Solar rickshaws to beat Howrah traffic bluesRupak Banerjee, Times of India, Thursday, 17th September 2015The Howrah Municipal Corporation is planning to launch a solar powered e-rickshaw designed by IIEST, Shibpur. It will have twin benefits: the rickshaws will ensure a safe ride for passengers and secondly, the new mode of transport is expected to generate employment. "The e-rickshaw we have designed will be covered on all sides with a solar panel atop. It will be akin to a three-wheeler car and one can even choose to fit an air-conditioner inside. Moreover, existing e-rickshaws have a very short battery life and it costs an operator approximately Rs 300 a day to charge the battery for a 12-hour drive. The new rickshaw will have long-lasting battery life," said IIEST director Ajoy Ray. IIEST's Centre for Green Energy and Censor System, which conceived the 'improved green three-wheeler', has submitted a patent application for the design. "Once approved, the patent will be sold to a manufacturer," said Ray, adding, "When it hits the road, the solar e-rickshaw will have a capacity to carry four passengers besides the driver." Besides outpacing existing e-rickshaws on safety and operational aspects, the IIEST-designed three-wheeler will be more competitive on the price front as well. While existing e-rickshaws cost over Rs 1 lakh, the green version will command a five figure price tag.

Over 50 expats set out for walk of hope in IndiaGulf News, Thursday, 17th September 2015James Glen Dening, 69, an American expatriate living in Abu Dhabi, can’t wait for October. He is all set to travel to India to undertake what he believes will be the most significant journey of his life. He will be joining thousands of others on a 7,500-km walk across India with just one purpose: to spread the message of peace and harmony. The walk has found many takers like Dening from the UAE. Led by Sri M, a social reformer and educationist, the Walk of Hope - from Kanyakumari to Kashmir - which flagged off on January 12, will cover 11 Indian states in 18 months. The ‘pad-yatra’ (journey by foot) is expected to touch the lives of over 10 million people emphasising the importance of inter-faith harmony, equality, sustain-able living, women empowerment, community health, education and youth development. According to Param Singh, UAE coordinator for the walk, “Over 50 residents from the UAE have taken part in the walk already and many more are joining the group in the coming days.” Singh said participants undertake the journey on foot during the day. In the evening, they rest in a village or town, mingling with the local population and sharing meals with them.RI may lose out to India in luring global investorsTassia Sipahutar, The Jakarta Post, Wednesday, 16th September 2015Indonesia may lose potential investment to India, which has become one of most attractive investment destinations in Asia owing to its relatively stable economic conditions and higher economic growth. Su Sian Lim, HSBC economist for Southeast Asian region or ASEAN, said in Jakarta on Monday that India was better at fixing its domestic economy than Indonesia. “In the past, they have often been put in the same basket. Comparisons have been made about growth, about structural reform, whose external vulnerabilities are worse and so on and so forth, but right now it looks to me, from all angles, India is doing better,” she said in a discussion on investment flow trends from ASEAN. HSBC predicts that such cyclical slowdown will result in Indonesia’s economy expanding by only 4.7 percent this year, its lowest level in six years. Indonesia’s GDP grew just 5.02 percent last year, down from 5.6 percent in 2013. “In 2016, it’s not going to be significantly better. We’re expecting Indonesia to expand to 4.9 percent,” she added. HSBC’s forecast is lower than the 5.5 percent growth that the government has planned in the 2016 draft state budget.On the contrary, HSBC estimates that India’s economic growth will surge to 7.8 percent in 2015, from 7.3 percent last year, and continue to expand to close to 8 percent in 2016.Indian bankers named Asia-Pacific’s most powerful womenNortheast Today, Wednesday, 16th September 2015Bankers Chanda Kochhar and Arundhati Bhattacharya have been ranked as top two in a list of most powerful women in Asia-Pacific prepared by the global magazine Fortune. Kochhar, 53, who heads the country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank, has been ranked at the top, up from the second position last year, the magazine said on its website. It has credited Kochhar with reshaping banking in the country, and for building ICICI Bank into the “nation’s largest and most profitable private sector lender’’. She is followed by Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman of the country’s largest lender State Bank of India, whose ranking has also moved up from the fourth spot where she was last year, the magazine added. State-run oil marketing company Hindustan Petroleum Corporation’s Chairman and Managing Director, Nishi Vasudeva, has also made it to the list at fifth rank, same as the previous, it said. The country’s third largest private sector lender Axis Bank’s Managing Director and chief executive, Shikha Sharma, came in at the ninth spot in the list. Singapore-based chief executive of International Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Sheila Patel, has also made it to the list at the 23rd position. The list includes key executives from over six countries in the region. With 11 names, Chinese women lead the list.IIT Kharagpur researchers develop method to produce tea in plainsDNA, Wednesday, 16th September 2015Quality Indian tea will no more be limited to the likes of Assam and Darjeeling as IIT is helping new areas in Kharagpur and Purulia to produce scientifically- grown and processed tea. At a small tea garden inside the campus, IIT-Kharagpur researchers have demonstrated how organic tea could be grown scientifically even in the plains and then the leaves processed in a cheaper way with their newly patented energy-saving machine. In the vicinity of the campus, the Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park (STEP) at the IIT, has identified 17 villages where commercial tea cultivation would soon begin. Under a project funded by the Tea Board, a team of scientists led by Professor Bijoy Chandra Ghosh of the Agricultural and Food Engineering Department has developed new CTC (crush, tear and curl) machines, which occupy less space and consume less energy.

India plans solar power systems on roofs of 500 trainsSmiti Mittal , Clean Technica, Wednesday, 16th September 2015Looking to extend the success of a pilot project that saw the roofs of trains covered with solar power systems, the Indian Government is planning to financially support a similar but larger plan. The Government may provide subsidies to Indian Railways to set up solar power systems atop 500 trains. The systems would be used to power lighting, fans, and air-conditioning systems aboard the trains, while the potential subsidy may be provided through the National Clean Energy Fund, which is replenished through the tax levied on coal mined or imported in India. This program is in addition to the existing plan to set up 500 MW rooftop solar capacity at railways stations around the country. Both these plans are expected to bring huge financial savings to Indian Railways, which is probably the single largest consumer of electricity in the country. In 2013-14, Indian Railways consumed 17.5 billion kWh electricity, or about 1.8% of the total electricity generated in India. On top of this, it also has to pay significantly higher tariffs than other consumer categories. Indian Railways is planning to source 10% of its electricity demand from renewable energy sources by 2020.

13.Rajasthan’s first 200 KW rooftop solar PV power plant installedKhabar India, Wednesday, 16th September 2015Clay Craft India that is known to be one of the largest manufacturer and retailer of fine bone china and ceramic tableware has welcomed in Su-Kam Power Systems to set Rajasthan’s first 200 KW rooftop grid tied solar photovoltaic power plant for captive consumption at company’s manufacturing facility. Clay Craft India with this achievement has developed into the first company to use renewable energy in VKI, Jaipur. In the second phase with an installation of an additional 100 KW rooftop solar PV systems it will become Rajasthan’s first manufacturing company using 200 KW rooftop solar PV systems in total.

Sunjeev Sahota on Man Booker Prize shortlistPARVATHI MENON, Hindu, Wednesday, 16th September 2015A British author of Indian descent is one of the six novelists short-listed for the prestigious Man Booker Prize, 2015. The Year of the Runaways is Sunjeev Sahota’s second novel, and centres around the lives of three Indian men — one a Dalit — and a woman, all migrants from India. The three men are thrown together in a house for migrants in Sheffield, while the woman, a ‘visa-wife’ lives nearby. The novel shines a penetrating light on immigration through the lives of the characters before and after they came to Britain. The 34-year old Mr. Sahota, whose name figured in Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2013, has received glowing reviews for the book. His first book Ours are the Streets is about the journey of a young British Pakistani from ordinary teenager to terrorist, and was written after the July 7, 2005 bombings on the London underground. This is the second year that the prize has been open to writers of any nationality, writing in English and published in the United Kingdom. Till 2014, the Booker Prize was open to authors only from the U.K. and Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe.India escapes the worst of emerging markets miseryKhaleej Times, Tuesday, 15th September 2015Three years ago India was the weakling of the emerging markets clan, politically stagnant and struggling to grow - but as gloom engulfs other developing economies, the subcontinent is enjoying a moment in the sun. Brazil and Russia lie deep in recession and South Africa is teetering on the brink after demand for raw materials collapsed, while alarm bells have sounded over fears the China juggernaut may be faltering. Enter India, once dubbed the Broken Bric, as the core group is known, now poised to become the fastest-growing G20 economy, expanding at a respectable seven percent, with its finances nourished by cheap oil. "If you look at the growth numbers, India is definitely doing better than these other economies," Kunal Kundu, an economist at Societe Generale in Bangalore, told AFP. "China is in slowdown mode and Brazil and Russia are in trouble because they are commodities-dependent. We are seeing India as the standout." It is not all rosy - while low-cost oil and a new way of calculating growth have added shine to India's GDP figures, its exports remain poor and shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange languish five percent below a year ago. Economists say underlying growth remains fragile, and question whether the re-calculated figures that show India's growth rate has caught up with China's can be trusted. And while politicians trumpet a growth rate that now rivals China's, economists warn India is still a chronic underperformer.Stocks at two-week high

Indian women travelers increasingly open to going soloThe Inquirer, Tuesday, 15th September 2015The passion for travelling alone has increased among Indian women. According to a recent survey commissioned by Skyscanner, a global travel search engine, about 70 per cent of Indian women travelers have either gone on a solo trip or are planning one. The survey, which studied the travel habits of Indian travelers, highlighted that 37 per cent of Indian women travelers have done a solo trip while 33 per cent are open to the idea of travelling solo. Talking about the survey, Kavitha Gnanamurthy, senior marketing manager, Skyscanner India said, “It is encouraging to see that Indian women are increasingly breaking stereotypes and travelling alone. There is also an opportunity to further promote Indian destinations to solo travelers all over the world.” she added. According to the survey, about 33 per cent of women travelers preferred a well-planned itinerary to avoid last-minute surprises, 26 per cent of respondents preferred a mix of planned and unplanned elements to explore new places in their chosen destination, 19 per cent of women were more comfortable planning their solo travel through trusted agents, while 16 per cent of respondents prefer to explore their chosen destination without a planned itinerary or tour. Perhaps safety and security remain key barriers for women solo travelers all across the country. About 31 per cent of women travelers avoid taking solo trips due to safety and security concerns across domestic and international travel.

India's biggest radio telescope upgradedKalyan Ray, Deccan Herald, Tuesday, 15th September 2015India’s biggest radio-telescope, GMRT, has been upgraded to observe cosmic objects hidden deep in the universe in a manner that is not possible by any other observatory in the world. The upgraded Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope, located near Narayangaon off Pune-Nashik highway, would be thrown open to the scientific community at a function on Tuesday. “This will mark the end of Phase II. We have completed upgrading 16 of the 30 dishes of GMRT at a cost of Rs 35 crore. The rest would be done by September 2016,” said J K Solanki, one of the scientists at the National Centre for Radio Astronomy (NCRA), Pune, that runs GMRT. The entire package would cost around Rs 60 crore. In operation since 2002, GMRT is an array of 30 fully steerable, 45 metre diameter antennas, spread out over a 30 km region near Narayangaon. The radio telescope is used by astronomers from across the world for frontline research in astronomy and astrophysics. Over the years, the GMRT has been used to find pulsars (pulsating stars) and study cosmic objects emitting radio-wave.

Indian scientists decode Tulsi plant genomeTribune India, Tuesday, 15th September 2015Indian scientists have deciphered the entire genetic make-up of Tulsi, a herb widely used for therapeutic purposes. The genome map will help in making new medicines using the plant. A multi-institutional team led by Sowdhamini Ramanathan from the National Centre of Biological Science, Bengaluru revisited the age-old knowledge of the plant and its medicinal effects in their laboratories. The plant synthesises a wide range of bioactive compounds, known for their anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-pyretic and anti-cancer properties. These compounds are metabolites, compounds that are a by-product of plant metabolism, typically used for plant self-defence. These metabolites are very poorly understood because of lack of genomic information. Sowdhamini and team have produced the first draft genome of O tenuiflorum Krishna subtype, which is an important step in understanding and identifying the genes responsible for production of metabolites with medicinal properties.

More Indian Airports Set To Go SolarSmiti Mittal , Clean Technica, Tuesday, 15th September 2015Recently, the Kochi airport in the south Indian state of Kerala switched to solar power and created headlines across the world. Now, another airport is set to adopt solar power to meet a majority of its power needs. The Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose airport in Kolkata will have a utility-scale solar power project of 15 to 20 MW capacity. The project will be set up over a 55 acres area and would meet 60% of the airport’s power needs. The airport authorities will soon launch tender for the implementation of the project, with financial resources worth $20 million already having been allocated for the project. The project will be able to meet the entire demand of the airport during the day, but during the night the airport would be required to purchase power from the grid. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) recently announced that major airports in the western state of Rajasthan would also set up solar power projects to meet a part of their power demand. The Jaipur airport already has a 100 kW rooftop solar power system and is planning to set up a 1.8 MW ground-based power project. Airports at Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, and Bikaner are also planning to set up rooftop projects. Other Indian airports have also set up solar power projects to meet a part of the demand, as well as earn additional revenue. Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, operated by GMR Infrastructure, has a solar power project registered under the Renewable Energy Certificates schemes.India speeds up progress on its Moon missionSpace Flight Insider, Monday, 14th September 2015India has begun intensifying work on its second lunar probe, called Chandrayaan-2, an advanced version of the agency’s previous successful Chandrayaan spacecraft. The mission will include an orbiter and a lander-rover module and is scheduled to be launched at the end of 2017 / start of 2018 via a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have recently started working to speed up activities on the design of the mission. ISRO’s Space Applications Centre (SAC) has completed the configuration study for the Chandrayaan-2 and the work to integrate the mission’s elements has begun. Chandrayaan-2’s configuration changes were applied to the orbiter for accommodating the indigenous lander. The spacecraft’s high-resolution camera was also configured to accurately provide high-quality images of the landing site area before the separation of lander from the orbiter. The scientists have identified both the landing strategies for a soft landing on the lunar surface and new technologies required for the lander. The engineering model of the six-wheeled rover has been designed and tested at the lunar terrain test facility. SAC is also developing an HD video camera for both the lander and the rover. The mission will carry five scientific instruments on the orbiter. Three of which are new, while two others are improved versions of those flown on Chandrayaan-1.